Southern dendrobium grown in the north leverages the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei momentum to lead villagers to prosperity
Dendrobium officinale is listed as the foremost of the "Nine Great Immortal Herbs of China" in classic works of traditional medicine, possessing enormous medicinal value and broad market prospects. However, most dendrobium grows deep in the mountains of Yunnan and Guangxi. To break through the traditional limits of growing regions, Liu Zhonghua, general manager of Qingyun County Wosen Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd., achieved "southern dendrobium grown in the north" for the first time through technological innovation, developed the "Northern Dendrobium" product series, successfully created local jobs, and advanced industrial enrichment of farmers.
Right now, Liu Zhonghua is giving planting technology training to the women workers newly hired this year. After hands-on practice on the job, these ordinary rural women will transform into technical personnel and head to dendrobium planting bases in various places, spreading Liu Zhonghua's "southern dendrobium grown in the north" technology to more locations. Compared with other southern crops, dendrobium has extremely strict environmental requirements, making the operation fraught with difficulties. In terms of the transplanting characteristics of the plant, transplants are usually only a few hundred kilometers, as this keeps the risk relatively low. Liu Zhonghua transported them all at once from a thousand kilometers away to the edge of Qingyun, making the technical difficulty enormous. From preparing the project in 2010 to promoting the planting technology on a large scale, Liu Zhonghua spent a full five years.
To realize his dream, Liu Zhonghua sought out his university teacher, plant tissue culture expert Cao Chunying, asking her to serve as the company's chief expert and provide technical guidance, but the teacher refused.
Recalling the situation at the time, Liu Zhonghua said: Our head teacher said back then that if you could get Teacher Cao out of retirement, even if you went to her door a hundred times, you would be lucky just to see her. That was a big blow to me at the time. I went back and forth to Qingdao about ten-plus times. I guess she was moved by my sincerity and thought I could accomplish something in this field.
With the teacher's help, the first batch of dendrobium seedlings began to be planted in quantity. Just as they were waiting full of confidence for the harvest, reality dealt them a heavy blow. Because they had only considered heat preservation and neglected the issue of ventilation, some seedlings all became infected with pathogens in about a week.
After thousands of repeated trials, Liu Zhonghua and his team overcame many difficulties such as high latitude, severe cold and dryness, and successfully cultivated Dendrobium officinale suitable for growing in the north -- Northern Dendrobium, whose taste and medicinal value both surpass those of southern dendrobium. This year, Liu Zhonghua's Northern Dendrobium planting scale will exceed 400 mu, driving more than 100 nearby villagers to find employment at their doorstep, over 90% of them women workers. Under the guidance of the Qingyun County government, Liu Zhonghua has also paired with four surrounding villages for poverty alleviation, achieving farmer employment, poverty alleviation and prosperity through industrial poverty alleviation.
As Dezhou accelerates its integration into the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Liu Zhonghua is also riding this momentum, actively connecting with colleges and enterprises in Beijing and Tianjin, extending the dendrobium industry chain, and building a high-end health care brand.
Liu Zhonghua plans to build a 5,000-mu Dendrobium officinale production and processing base within five years. At the same time, based on sightseeing and picking of distinctive Chinese medicinal herbs and dining, he will develop distinctive rural leisure sightseeing tourism to drive nearby residents' income growth. He aims to build an agricultural science and technology demonstration park with "one center and four zones": a biotechnology research and production center, a seedling zone, a planting and picking zone, an innovative leisure sightseeing zone, and a breeding zone.